Indulge in a delicious spread of Indonesian dishes at Chow Kit's Restoran Nasi Kapau

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — If you have a keen eye, there's always something interesting to discover in the city.

I spotted Restoran Nasi Kapau when I was around the Chow Kit area and decided to give it a try one weekend.

When I arrived after they had just opened, there was already a long line of customers waiting. Hence patience is required as each person runs through the whole spread of dishes to select their choices. As the counter can only fit two people ladling up the dishes, there's a bottleneck for orders.

On the surface level, nasi kapau and nasi padang may look similar with various cooked dishes which one selects to enjoy with rice. Apparently from an article by Kompas, there are actually four differences.

Nasi kapau originates from Bukit Tinggi, Sumatra while nasi padang's beginnings are from the city of Padang, which is located in West Sumatra.

The fried 'dendeng' is a popular item here that sells out quickly.

In terms of dishes offered, there's some items exclusive to nasi kapau. One is the sayur kapau which is essentially a mix of vegetables cooked in a light, curry broth. The other item is gulai tembusu which is intestines stuffed with egg tofu, which Restoran Nasi Kapau serves together with unusual items like cow's brains, tripe and intestines.

What I observed was how Restoran Nasi Kapau offers three variations of dendeng, which no other place does in the Klang Valley. You have thin crispy deep fried dendeng. There's also dendeng lambok which is covered with chopped red chillies to give it flavour and dendeng bakar with tangy green chillies and onions. It was my first time experiencing the grilled version.

You also get two other 'dendeng' dishes, one with red chillies and another grilled version paired with tangy green chillies.

In Indonesia, the layout of the dishes is different between nasi padang and nasi kapau. The dishes for nasi kapau are placed on various levels while nasi padang is just arranged on a single level.

In Malaysia, there's not much difference in the layout, probably due to space constraints. What I noticed though is at Restoran Nasi Kapau, the food items are stacked up high on plates. Like their fried fish or chicken.

Unique to this restaurant is the 'sayur kapau' or mixed vegetables served with curry.

Lastly, in Indonesia, it's the way you order the dishes. Usually for nasi padang, they bring over a sample of the dishes to your table to order. For nasi kapau, people will queue up for the food to select it at the counter.

In Malaysia, whether it's nasi padang or nasi kapau, the diners will queue to select their own.

You will notice that the food like their chicken dishes is stacked up attractively.

In Restoran Nasi Kapau's case, most patrons ask for it to be served nasi ramas which is basically like mixed rice where white rice is served with a choice of preferred dishes. Larger groups can ask for the dishes to be served hidang style to share.

It's hard to select which dishes to try out but for me the highlight was their dendeng. The crispy version is the crowd favourite but I prefer the ones served with chillies.

You get two types of 'rendang' here.

Their dendeng lambok uses the fried dendeng but it's covered with a mixture of chopped red chillies, onions and spring onions that gives it a slightly spicy taste. I prefer the dendeng bakar where grilled sliced beef is covered with chopped green chillies and onions. The beef has a smoky taste and it's addictive with the tangy green chilli mix. The dendeng is RM8.

You can have various chicken dishes from gulai ayam, ayam balado, ayam bakar or ayam pop. Prices start from RM8 onwards for the chicken.

Select your greens to accompany your meal from 'ulam' or boiled vegetables.

I decided to try out the ayam bakar. The chicken is lightly grilled and covered generously with a rich curry paste with coconut and herbs, making it a delicious choice.

Other items selected include the bergedil (RM2), peanuts mixed with tempe and gulai tunjang (RM9). The tunjang or beef tendons have a firmer bite paired with a super spicy curry.

The queue is long as many people will ponder over their choices at the counter.

As sayur kapau (RM3) is unique here, it was also part of my lunch spread. The vegetables like jackfruit, long beans and cabbage were well cooked in a light curry.

As I didn't try many dishes, I'm definitely returning for their rendang and the famous gulai tembusu. There's also various fish dishes I would like to sample too.

Restoran Nasi Kapau, 379, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur. Open: 11am to 8pm (Thursday to Sunday). Tel: +6012-6458983.